Busy News Day

It has been a busy day in the world.

Rebels broke into Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s Tripoli compound and took it over. I have to confess I have not paid close attention to the whole thing. Why? I guess because there are only so many things I can pay attention to and there is not a single thing I can do to affect the outcome of that one way or the other.

Frankly, I’ve largely lost interest in politics of all sorts. I will certainly vote. I will always vote. But, I will no longer endorse one candidate or another on a local or state level unless I know them personally. I have been burned one too many times by people who profess to be one thing and turn out to be another. Paul Morrison taught me that lesson. On a national level I will just have to make my best guesses.

In other news today, Virginia had an earthquake that was felt in DC. You would think it was some huge, big deal event. As best I can tell, trying to ferret out the facts from the huge over-reaction of the east-coast based news operations, some things shook. Maybe I’m a big jaded because I grew up near the New Madrid fault line and I’ve experienced numerous earthquakes, but this wasn’t any big deal. You would have thought there was mass destruction once the news shows finally got involved. At 5.8 I think it would have been unusual to have much major destruction, although I suppose it could happen.

It was, however, a great example of how much news coverage has changed in the world. I came back from lunch and saw a note on Facebook about it. I immediately logged on to cnn.com, where I found no mention of it at all. I went to Twitter, and quickly learned it was a lot of talk about something that wasn’t worth talking about. By the time the traditional news organizations got involved in covering the story, and getting overly excited, I already knew it wasn’t much of a story. But, we were subjected to numerous live shots of them standing in various places saying nothing had happened. Brilliant use of time, talent, energy and airtime. We could have heard about something important instead. But, that was not to be.

Also, I know this is not going to make me popular, but I’m sick of hearing about people being freaked out every time something happens. No matter what is it – earthquake to power outtage – people assume we’re under attack by some unknown force, and start freaking out. People rush into the streets, jam cell phones and start evacuating cities. Good grief, people in Tripoli are dodging bullets. That’s something to freak out about. People in Joplin had a third of their town wiped out. That’s major. The pictures on your wall shook. It is not the same thing. Get a grip. Somewhere along the way we’ve turned into a nation afraid of its own shadow. The power goes out sometimes. You’ll live without the DVR for a few hours. Calm the hell down.

On a personal note, tonight was Creative Sisterhood. For the first time in a few months we were all here and it was nice to connect. Group dynamics are fascinating.—– Connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.

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Daniel Seddiqui has been called the most rejected man in the world. Unable to find a job after college, he embarked on a plan to work in 50 jobs in 50 states in 50 weeks. He wrote a book about the experience and is now a speaker and film producer. He spoke at the Ray […]